Massage

What Are the Health Benefits of a Hot Stone Massage?

Stone therapy, or stone therapy, has been mentioned since ancient sources as a treatment for a wide variety of ailments. Stone therapy is based on the temperature effect on our body, especially on our blood vessels. There is an opinion that stones are able to inform the body about what it is lacking. What Are the Health Benefits of a Hot Stone Massage?

Stone Therapy Procedure

Stone therapy procedure implies massage with stones warmed and cooled to a certain temperature. Hot stones relax muscles, while cold stones improve circulation and metabolic processes. Contrast massage is particularly beneficial to the body, using a quick change of hot and cold stones. The impact of contrasting temperature stones has a positive effect on vascular tone, strengthening the walls of blood vessels.

The final stage of the massage with stones is able to relieve headaches and fatigue, restore metabolism and relieve stress. This massage is most often performed with hot stones. Generally, this therapeutic hot stone massage uses stones of volcanic origin. This is because these rocks are able to keep the temperature long enough, otherwise the therapy will have no effect.

Especially worth noting that stone therapy is not just heating stones and applying them to different areas. It is a whole science. In order for such a massage to have an effect, it is necessary to know how specific stones affect certain points of the body. A specialist, who conducts massage with hot stones, must be experienced. Independently at home, the procedure of stone therapy should be carried out only for relaxation, but not for therapeutic purposes.

The benefits of the massage with hot stones

Massage with hot stones by activating the metabolic processes helps to remove toxins from the body. Deep heating of the tissues warms up the blood capillaries. As a result, the blood circulates faster and toxins are flushed out even from stagnant areas. Sessions of stone therapy also promote maximum relaxation, soothe and help resist stress. 

With such a massage, muscles are relaxed both in the areas where the stones come into contact with the body and throughout the body, including the face, thanks to which fine wrinkles are smoothed out. Therefore, we can note another positive effect of stone therapy – cosmetic. Hot stone massage restores hormonal balance, rejuvenates cells, and the alternating technique of massage with hot and cold stones can reduce cellulite.

Contraindications to stone therapy

Usually the stones are heated up to 40 °C, but it is worth considering that in some diseases it is undesirable to heat them more than 38 °C. Stones, both hot and cold, actively affect our body, so this technique has not only indications, but also contraindications, which include:

  • acute infectious diseases;
  • inflammatory processes of the internal organs and skin;
  • mental diseases;
  • oncological diseases;
  • pregnancy.

If you have acute or chronic diseases, it is advisable to consult with your doctor before starting a hot stone massage.